Yup, It’s Him: A Pynchon Mystery Solved

By

Steven Kurutz

Aug 11, 2009 12:01 pm ET

Last Tuesday, long-suffering fans of the reclusive writer Thomas Pynchon received a double gift. Pynchon’s latest book, “Inherent Vice,” a stoned-out detective story set in early-‘70s L.A., was released by Penguin Press (read the Journal’s review). And to promote it, the publisher put out a cool video trailer featuring a narrator whose slow, lazy cadence sounds suspiciously like that of Pynchon’s, as evidenced by a guest appearance on “The Simpsons” and this clip from what appears to be a German TV spot. Inquiries by GalleyCat and others as to whether Pynchon is the guy channeling the novel’s main character, beach bum private eye Doc Sportello, have been met with “no comment” from Penguin Press and the video’s producers, Meerkat Media. And, of course, the man himself is mum (Would Pynchon fans expect anything else?).

In an effort to solve the mystery, Speakeasy did a little sleuthing and called Ed Primeau, a Michigan-based sound engineer and voice identification expert. Like handwriting analysis, voice identification is an inexact science, often used by law enforcement to rule out a suspect rather than to provide a 100% clear-cut ID. Still, people have unique vocal timbres and deliveries, especially Pynchon, who sounds like actor John Astin (i.e. Gomez Addams from the old TV show), mixed with a Midwest corn farmer, with a dollop of aging stoner.

So is it possible to rule out the man in the “Inherent Vice” trailer as being the same guy in the Simpsons episode and German TV clip?